Hsinchu Day 1

Woke up around 6am, as it would be about 11am NZT. Snoozed for another hour, then woke up again. Still really tired. Got up and got myself down for breakfast at 8am. 

They didn't have buffet?!?! Nooooo 😭 I was really looking forwards to the vermicilli! They had a menu to order a couple of items from, and ohhh they have 蘿蔔糕.... and I ended up ordering like 4 plates and a couple of drinks of soy milk. I was really hungry! A family with a kid that was coughing so bad, came down and sat 2 tables over when I just started eating. Uggghhh.... well I hope this vent, which I can feel air coming out of, is pushing any sick air away.... Finished up, yummy, stacked my plates, thanked the staff, and went back into my room. I'm so so tired. TToTT

Blogged, and now just waiting for Dark H and Knuckles to get ready so we can go out later! I hope I have enough physical and mental energy to last the day.

Ended up taking a snooze until about 11:15am, and then Dark H and Knuckles arrived. They gave me biscuits from RT bakery, and some tea biscuit 茶酥 which I took up to the room first. 

Off we go on their bike. Knux asked me if I wanted to try ride by myself but I said probably not... xD I think I would have trouble keeping up with them. But I do ride by myself in Taichung.

We went to No. 10 Nanmen 南門壹食 noodles place. Their pricing is expensive for the portion, but their noodles are hand pulled! And their wontons are quite filling, all meat. I left the selection and ordering to Dark H and Knux. I was still quite full from breakfast - I thought I would have digested by now but all I did was lie down and rest so I didn't expend that much energy. Knux ordered a braised egg white - whole eggs without the yolk. ??? Peculiar. Their herb mix was quite fragant and different. Oh, when we walked into the store to grab menus you can really smell like aniseed marinade/braising smell. Mmm. We sat outside. The weather was good today, cloudy and not too hot atm. Also a dish of white chicken, with a fried garlic topping? It was really moist, and full of flavour. Then the noodles themselves were on the firmer side, but it had really good texture and bite bounceback. The sauce coated it well. The dumplings were full and meaty. The bits of pork for the noodle sauce was rich. Very good flavour. Would love to come back when I'm actually hungry! Also there's asparagus juice on the menu. It came in a can, and had a very traditional pin up style illustration on one side!!! Cute. It's like sugar water with asparagus taste. Quite nice. 

After this stop we went to the cinema museum - OR Lightbox. There was a volunteer aunty there with a printed bifold mask - blue porcelain type flowers on white background. Cute. Aunty was very good at explaining the history of the building. A small portion of the roof was damaged in the WW2 bombings, and the seats in the cinema used to be 500-600, where now it's 200-300. The seats used to be less roomy and more compact. They had a lightbox in the display cabinet - this is when people used to pay 50 cents 五毛 to have a message written onto a glass panel, and then inserted to project onto the side of the movie screen. For example, if you were looking for someone or needed to do a staff call, you would write "looking for xxx name" on it and project it. Another visitor told them that it was a cheaper way of advertising for businesses on a budget. They would pay and have an advert written on and projected. So interesting. They also have those two big as projector machines in the front, where it was saved from a theatre in Yunlin. So they are actual artifacts of history! The little movie flyers that were used to given out on the streets were interesting too. On the stairs they have rods screwed into the floor, where the angle of the step goes from flat to straight up. It looks kinda Gatsby decor, but it's actually used to secure carpet for VIPs, etc. The building itself is quite well preserved from the Japanese colonial period. The volunteer aunty ended up living in the same 社區 as Knux, LOL. He overheard her talking to someone else and then mentioned it. He had a good chat just before, and aunty said "no wonder you're coming to me with all the questions" LOL. He asked if the Bently projecter on display is the same as the car brand, since some old automobile companies made other stuff. Prior to that the aunty was talking to some other visitors or other volunteers on how a relative daughter of hers studied Jp by herself, went to Japan, and then dumped her fam to do other stuff and watch anime/do weeb things LOL. Cause she can speak Jp by that stage, and was influenced to learn by some community caretakers or fam friends, and then anime. Hahah.

They were doing a film festival for Juanchun films - and this Sunday is the last one. Ahh!!! Wish I could watch some of these films.

Next we went to the City Art Gallery. On the way there we met the volunteer aunty coming back from buying lunch, and introduced us to go to other places. Then we stopped at an Imei specialty store. They had exclusive products, I bought a couple flavours of wafers as they use freeze dried fruits inside the fillings. I put the points and receipt onto Dark H's account.

The Art Gallery had an exhibit called "Weekend". It was very contemporary, lol. A lot of their info plagues have a QR code for you to scan. But why can't they just print the info out? I don't wanna be on my phone all the time... Interesting artworks. They had a globe in the middle of an artwork and it did have NZ on it. LOL. And also a viewing room with an old CRT Sony TV in the corner. They had a big screen going with some sort of night view reflection and music too.

After looking at the building for a bit, (they have the old spotted concrete floors), we headed to the next place, the City Councill building. The volunteer aunty said it's open and we can walk in. They're setting stuff up at the entrance with some gazebos. Seems like a Halloween event featuring Puipuis is being held tomorrow. This place will be swarming with kids. xD So it was good that we came today, cause we can get photos of the Puis Puis without all the people. The architecture of the building is so cool. The windows were bent/warped from age. The doors are original and very well worn at the high touch areas. Very cool. Upstairs is the mayor's office. As we left we saw that they are doing a event with the gacha machines (still empty at this stage) where you take a photo with the Puipuis and upload to to SNS, you can get a chance to sin the gacha with a Puipui toy? I said I'm good I'll leave it for the kids, 把機會留給小孩 and Knux said, but we are kids! 可是我們也是小孩 And I said, leave it for the small small kids. 給小小孩. He said 這樣子還要分別一下 or something similar LOL.

Next is the Living Arts Musuem. Knux and Dark H have never come before. This was my favourite building this trip. There is a lot of history! They had an indigo arts exhibit in the main hall. Which was very cool - the amount of intricate art on there is amazing. One piece that had the Fire Bombs FF monsters on it, one of the volunteers said that the white parts were used with a blocker/blocking agent and not painted on. It blocks the dye, and the piece took about a year to complete. It's amazing. There was a group of school kids in purple shirts there, experiencing an DIY workshop on the little stage. I assumed it might be a indigo dye one, but later I found out that it's Dutch style brick laying.

A sewer/dranage pipe they uncovered during WW2 repairs, and it is clearly labelled so they were able to discern it is from the Qing dynasty.

I thought this hall was all there was, but when I asked a volunteer there if they had a stamp - she took me to a diff section of the building! They had a mini museum here of the building's history. Initially she misheard and thought I wanted to volunteer - but I said stamp 印章不是應徵. Sorry buddy! We were short on time as Knuckles wanted to take me to a egg pudding custard tart place that you have to preorder (since small workshop). So I said maybe I come back tomorrow. But Dark H discussed and said he can go and we can stay. Great!! I went back and told the volunteer aunty that the plan has changed.

She was really good at explaining the stuff!! And the history of the building. There was an interactive one with a tablet where you find the little sprites using AR on the stone lanterns. xD I did it while Dark H looked on LOL she took a photo of me hahaha. There used to be a full arc way at the front of the building for the man-powered carts, but now there is just half of it. The original ramps were both sides because the man-powered carts can't turn or reverse easily lol. Volunteer aunty said that I was quite smart to realise that.

I really enjoyed this. Knuckles took the tarts to the hotel and asked the staff to fridge it for me first. After the mini musuem there was another wing where they had artworks and illustrations from various teachers that taught in the community building (now demolished during the restoration of the original building) celebrating the history and various other works. The wall remnant next to the building might have been left from the demolished teaching building, but I wasn't sure. It has flavour!!

We then went to the park across the road, where there were a lot of old seniors and their Filipino workers helping them massage and stuff. We were waiting for Knux. After he came we went to eat 葉大粒粉圓 ice, where they use the pineapple juice in the syrup. So good!! So cold!!! I was hungry enough to fit that now.

All the toppings are underneath the ice lol

The pepper cakes 胡椒餅 next door was smoky and smelt so good. After this we went to buy canéle, a French pastry. I got an Earl grey flavour. Then a few doors down there was a trendy café that roasted their own beans. I felt OK eating in here was there was a second floor and only 1 other person there. It was large enough. I got an Assam red tea, iced $180. They got some desserts and coffees. I had the canéle - the other crust was hard and caramelised scent, but the inside was soft and chewy. Very peculiar and interesting, and satisfying so 1 felt enough (it's $80 for one!). The café wasn't cheap - 2 drinks and 2 desserts for Dark H and Knux cost $630. 

We chatted for a while, talked about how there's no compact phones anymore. Then it was like almost 6pm, and we went to a 北門炸粿 1 item is $15 and the meat ball is $20. Still really cheap!!! It was good. Smells good. I bought a taro one and took it back to the hotel to eat. As we arrived though, my Jaga watch strap popped out and I realised the band that secured it had split and broken. Nooooo 😭😢😢😭 The band was only put on last year. I suppose the stock itself is old.... aaaahhhhh.... 

Dark H and Knuckles took me to the hotel and I picked up the tarts from reception, and want up to fetch their goodies. Dark H said "wow, so much!" when I showed her the jam. 

I just had some biscuits and pineapple cake from RT bakery, the tea cakes, and the taro oh-dei we stopped at to buy from before heading back to the hotel. Then took a shower, blogged (took like 1.5 hrs??) and I will sleep. I am so tired!